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Migrating to the EU

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Re: Migrating to the EU

#551

Post by askonomm »

fmajid wrote: post #316

The EU is not a privacy and human rights panacea, as shown by the continuing efforts to impose Chat Control. Switzerland is no better. Then again one of my wife’s friends is high up in the Canadian policy establishment and some of her positions on surveillance and political control over social media were chilling, and I assume widespread among the Five Eyes. Certainly the UK and Australia have deeply authoritarian po…

I find it odd that EU is judged by efforts that have time and time again _failed_, when I'd see that as a perfect example of a system actually working, because people do have the power to stop hostile legislation, whereas I see no such thing at all in the US.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#552

Post by pkulak »

darthcloud wrote: post #213

As a Canadian, I’ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications. My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways. They’re rare, but I’ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies ar…

I can't recommend Immich enough if you want to move off Google Photos.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#553

Post by shelled »

dinowars wrote: post #88

> First, I tried mailbox.org, which I can generally recommend without reservation. Unfortunately, you can’t send emails from any address on your own domain without a workaround I use mailbox for a long time, one account for 2.50EUR/month with multiple custom domains and I can send emails from any address. To send from a different address the process didn't really seem different than other providers. From Thunderbird…

I wish they had retained one awesome Thunderbird desktop feature on mobile as well - being able to set the "from" address on the go while composing the email, without having to add an identity/sender-mail in advance. Alas, it seems that hasn't been the case.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#555

Post by askonomm »

AlexandrB wrote: post #495
fmajid wrote: post #316

The EU is not a privacy and human rights panacea, as shown by the continuing efforts to impose Chat Control. Switzerland is no better. Then again one of my wife’s friends is high up in the Canadian policy establishment and some of her positions on surveillance and political control over social media were chilling, and I assume widespread among the Five Eyes. Certainly the UK and Australia have deeply authoritarian po…

Yup, I don't get someone who would look at the US and say that their government overreach is particularly bad compared to the rest of the "first world". For example, the UK is arresting people for getting too spicy in school Facebook groups[1]. It just feels like "grass is greener" mentality because folks on here are most familiar with US political issues. [1] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/police-arre…

Do the immigration police in UK also murder their own citizens in broad daylight? What about incarceration (and falsely incarcerated) rates? What about general cases of police brutality? What about pedophile-run government where nobody ever gets arrested? What about a government that's bailing out known criminals for money? Or one that rug pulls its own citizens via crypto scams, phone scams, citizenship scams? USA is so far beyond comparison to any other country that it's not even funny. The whole place is a con artists paradise, run by con artists, for con artists.

Not to mention that they are actively hostile towards its own allies, threaten to annex ally territory, don't want to help its allies, and then when it can't pull off a war it on its own started, then EU is supposed to come help? And when we don't, we get insulted for not being friendly? Honestly, F USA, and everything that place stands for. What a toxic cesspool of a place.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#556

Post by jorvi »

chucksmash wrote: post #540
patmorgan23 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyft pays people to help map in OSM. meta and Microsoft have both made big contributions as well (like allowing the use of Bing imagery)

Amazon also uses and contributes edits to OSM.

It doesn't matter if Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook contribute or pay huge sums.

Even Apple Maps is heavily, heavily behind Google Maps simply because very few users are entering Point of Interest info into Apple Maps.

New restaurant opens, or store closes, or opening hours change? Google Maps has the updated info within a few days. Apple Maps in a year or two, maybe.

That's the moat. The only way either Apple or the other corpos catch up is by offering massive financial incentives for their users to contribute PoI data.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#557

Post by rafram »

sofixa wrote: post #459
rafram wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The baseline level of freedom of speech in the EU, in particular, is much, much worse than in the US. We’re talking about a group of countries with active, enforced blasphemy laws! Completely unthinkable for Americans.

> We’re talking about a group of countries with active, enforced blasphemy laws In a very narrow interpretation, yes. Everyone with a modicum of common sense would realise that countries with laws on the books against offending religions / inciting hatred against them are still more free than a country where the fucking Bible is cited in court rulings and political speeches, and where there are active laws prohibitin…

The far right is ascendant in Europe; obviously restrictions on speech haven't prevented that. I am Jewish, I have a strong dislike of Nazis, and yet I think Nazis legally being able to "spout Nazi ideology" is a healthy thing for our society. Criminalizing speech doesn't stop people from holding abhorrent beliefs.

This is an aspect of our country that I think most Americans are proud of. Some relevant reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am...

Re: Migrating to the EU

#558

Post by messe »

rafram wrote: post #557
sofixa wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We’re talking about a group of countries with active, enforced blasphemy laws In a very narrow interpretation, yes. Everyone with a modicum of common sense would realise that countries with laws on the books against offending religions / inciting hatred against them are still more free than a country where the fucking Bible is cited in court rulings and political speeches, and where there are active laws prohibitin…

The far right is ascendant in Europe; obviously restrictions on speech haven't prevented that. I am Jewish, I have a strong dislike of Nazis, and yet I think Nazis legally being able to "spout Nazi ideology" is a healthy thing for our society. Criminalizing speech doesn't stop people from holding abhorrent beliefs. This is an aspect of our country that I think most Americans are proud of. Some relevant reading: https…

[flagged]

Re: Migrating to the EU

#559

Post by ginko »

verisimi wrote: post #474
johannes1234321 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has about 450 million citizens, which of course limits my direct vote. Downside of a democracy (EU is a complicated democracy, but still) is that a majority probably has other priorities than me. However there are many ways to impact policy makers. From individual contact to impact on the public debate. Even a small post here may lead to people considering their vote or contacting a local or EU parliamentarian…

The actual answer as to how much you influence policy is: none at all. The European commission proposes laws. European commissioners are proposed through existing EU institutions. They are not voted in. You vote for MEPs, who discuss laws, pass them, perhaps amending them. They do not propose them. And by the way, this is not democracy, it is 'representative democracy' - you vote for one person to represent you and 1…

The European commission are appointed by the Council of the EU which is composed by elected individual member countries' heads of government. Commissioners also need to be individually approved by the European Parliament which is directly elected.

Representative democracy is democracy. Basically all nation level democratic governments are representative democracies.

Being a cynic doesn't make you look clever.

Re: Migrating to the EU

#560

Post by rafram »

Bewelge wrote: post #210
rafram wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The baseline level of freedom of speech in the EU, in particular, is much, much worse than in the US. We’re talking about a group of countries with active, enforced blasphemy laws! Completely unthinkable for Americans.

Boiling down the different approaches to freedom of speech to "The baseline level is higher/lower", has always been a pretty simplistic (and if you would actually delve into the topic a little, flat out wrong) view . Freedom of speech is not absolute. Neither in Europe nor in the US. Both effectively have rules restricting certain speech. For example, speech that may harm others, such as inciting violence or maybe th…

> Shouting FIRE in a full venue

"Crowded theater"? In any case, yes, that's a popular understanding of limits on free speech in the US, but it's actually been superseded twice - first by "clear and present danger," then by "inciting or producing imminent lawless action." These days, it's probably (I am not a lawyer) legal to yell "fire!" in a crowded theater under many circumstances.

> Sadly, the recent developments in US show pretty well how freedom of speech cannot be measured by "How many specific laws are there about things I cannot say?".

There are no laws preventing you from saying anything in the US, unless you are specifically, directly inciting people, at that moment, to do things that break other laws. That's the point. You can't measure it in terms of degrees of restrictions; the US has none, and all European countries have at least some. The latter approach opens the floodgates to restrictions on any kind of speech that the government doesn't like. The US Constitution prevents that from ever happening.

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